Greece will NEVER recover under Europe’s brutal austerity plans – IMF’s shock warning

Greece’s bailout programme is not credible, says the IMF (Getty)

 

GREECE may never recover from its deep recession and financial crisis thanks to the brutal austerity measures demanded by its European creditors, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned.

The debt-laden country has been set ambitious economic targets by the European Commission and countries such as Germany, which are not “credible” and will hamper growth, according to the Washington-based organisation.

Only through a “Herculean effort” will Athens be able to meet the demands of its creditors, and through slashing spending in vital services that will derail Greece’s long-term prospects, said the fund.

The Next Greek Crisis Is Coming

A refugee holds an umbrella as he tries to light a fire during rainy weather at a makeshift camp in the northern border village of Idomeni, April 8. Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty

 

As you approach the northern Greek city of Kozani, which stands on a plateau surrounded by mountains, you start to see smoke—thick white clouds floating above the knotty shrubs and sun-dappled hills of Western Macedonia. This is the heart of Greece’s coal industry; the plumes come from the chimneys of power stations dotted around the region.

When most Greeks think of Kozani, they think of coal. In the 1950s, the Public Power Corp. (PPC), now Greece’s biggest electric company, took over the mines here and brought prosperity to this poor, largely agricultural corner of northern Greece. Locals soon abandoned their traditional ways of making a living: saffron cultivation, marble production and fur-making. Mining was not easy, but the workers were well-compensated. The city’s businesses flourished.

The IMF Just Entered The Cold War, Forgives Ukraine’s Debt To Russia

Since 1947 when it really started operations, the World Bank has acted as a branch of the U.S. Defense Department, from its first major chairman John J. McCloy through Robert McNamara to Robert Zoellick and neocon Paul Wolfowitz. From the outset, it has promoted U.S. exports – especially farm exports – by steering Third World countries to produce plantation crops rather than feeding their own populations. (They are to import U.S. grain.) But it has felt obliged to wrap its U.S. export promotion and support for the dollar area in an ostensibly internationalist rhetoric, as if what’s good for the United States is good for the world.

Greece misses bailout deadline as talks with creditors drag on

The deadline to dispense further rescue loans to debt-stricken Greece was extended by eurozone countries once again on Sunday amid continuing deadlock between Athens and its creditors.

With negotiations still bogged down over failure to agree on a new foreclosure law – legislation the leftist-led government says would push austerity-hit Greeks over the edge – lenders postponed a critical Eurogroup Working Group until Tuesday.

Greek Crisis Still Simmering

The Greek crisis is still far from being solved with Athens struggling to implement the reforms it promised in order to receive the latest round of bailouts from the European Union. So far, Greece has only followed through on 14 out of the 48 reforms needed to receive the €86 billion (us$95 billion) promised in the third bailout agreement made in August. Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Tuesday that European creditors are planning to delay the October payment of $3.3 billion, with the planned $27.6 billion bailout payment to recapitalize Greece’s banks also in jeopardy.

Greece to sell water, energy firms under EU deal

And more infrastructure gets plundered in the raid of Greek national sovereignty. Soon we’ll find out who gets what in this case — and it could be Germany once again, which just days ago, took over the Greek airport infrastructure. The Fourth Reich has pulled off the greatest heist of all time.

 

Greek privatisations under the EU bailout are set to include water companies, leading energy firms, and swathes of infrastructure.

The list, compiled by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, and agreed with creditors on 30 July, was published on Wednesday (19 August) by German Green MEP Sven Giegold.

He said the Greek public “hardly knows” what will be sold off and has “the right” to more “transparency”.

Greece escapes default to the ECB after emergency cash from the UK-funded EFSM

Now the inevitable has been delayed again as a loan was taken out to repay another loan. Essentially, the can got kicked down the proverbial road yet again, just in another direction.

 

Greece has narrowly escaped defaulting to the European Central Bank after it received an emergency bridge loan of €7.16 billion from the European Union.

Greece capitulates at EU summit

At the cost of national sovereignty and against the will of the Greek people, who just last week voted no in a referendum, the land where democracy was born capitulates and falls under dictatorship.

In politics, when two parties (or more) with starkly contrasting ideologies (i.e. Republicans and Democrats) agree on a deal, 99.9% of the time it’s the citizens who pay the price.

Don’t expect the Marxist Tsipras government to stay in power long.

 

A Greek exit from the eurozone has been avoided after a weekend of tough talks, but the political cost of arriving at a deal is likely to be felt for years to come.

After 18 hours of negotiations, culimnating six months of wider talks, euro leaders emerged bleary-eyed on Monday morning (13 July) to announce a deal that will, eventually, see Greece get a new bailout if it takes painful reforms and if it agrees to intense scrutiny at every step of the way.

The immediate result was summed up by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

“There will be no Grexit”, he said.

CBO: Debt Headed to 103% of GDP; Level Seen Only in WWII; ‘No Way to Predict Whether or When’ Fiscal Crisis Might Occur Here

(CNSNews.com) – Testifying in the U.S Senate yesterday, Congressional Budget Office Director Keith Hall warned that the publicly held debt of the U.S. government, when measured as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, is headed toward a level the United States has seen only once in its history—at the end of World War II.

To simply contain the debt at the high historical level where it currently sits—74 percent of GDP–would require either significant increases in federal tax revenue or decreases in non-interest federal spending (or a combination of the two).

Historically, U.S. government debt held by the public, measured as a percentage of GDP, hit its peak in 1945 and 1946, when it was 104 percent and 106 percent of GDP respectively.

In 2015, the CBO estimates that the U.S. government debt held by the public will be 74 percent of GDP. That is higher than the 69-percent-of-GDP debt the U.S. government had in 1943—the second year after Pearl Harbor.

The FDIC’s Plan to Raid Bank Accounts During the Next Crisis

The financial system is predominantly comprised of digital money. Actual physical Dollars bills and coins only amount to $1.36 trillion. This is only a little over 10% of the $10 trillion sitting in bank accounts. And it’s a tiny fraction of the $20 trillion in stocks, $38 trillion in bonds and $58 trillion in credit instruments floating around the system.

Suffice to say, if a significant percentage of people ever actually moved their money into physical cash, it could very quickly become a systemic problem.

Indeed, this is precisely what caused the 2008 meltdown, when nearly 24% of the assets in Money Market funds were liquidated in the course of four weeks. The ensuing liquidity crush nearly imploded the system.

Greece debt crisis: Athens accepts harsh austerity as bailout deal nears

Greek cabinet reportedly backs a package of reforms and spending cuts worth €13bn to secure third bailout and modest debt writeoff

The Greek government capitulated on Thursday to demands from its creditors for severe austerity measures in return for a modest debt write-off, raising hopes that a rescue deal could be signed at an emergency meeting of EU leaders on Sunday.

Athens is understood to have put forward a package of reforms and public spending cuts worth €13bn (£9.3bn) to secure a third bailout from creditors that could raise $50bn and allow it to stay inside the currency union.

The First Defeat

ATHENS/BERLIN/PARIS (Own report) – Germany’s imposition of its austerity policy suffered a first serious defeat in yesterday’s Greek referendum. Over 61 percent of the Greek voters rejected an agreement with the creditors that would have provided for a continuation of the German austerity measures. This defeat is all the more serious for Berlin, because German politicians had massively interfered in the Greek referendum debate. The decision whether there will be new negotiations – and if so, under what conditions – must now be taken. Whereas many Greeks celebrated the rejection of the austerity dictate yesterday evening, German politicians declared that it is “difficult to imagine” new negotiations with the government of Prime Minister Tsipras (the German Minister of the Economy, Sigmar Gabriel). Greece is heading toward a Grexit and a “humanitarian catastrophe” (Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament). Paris however is risking conflict with Berlin. Yesterday evening, the governing Parti Socialiste (PS) took a clear stand “against the austerity measures,” which has “shriveled Greece’s Gross Domestic Product and driven a large number of Greeks into poverty.” Today’s meeting between the German chancellor and the French president may produce the first decisions.

Greece ‘48 Hours Away From Unrest’

Please see the source link for the video.

 

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras probably has 48 hours to resolve a standoff with creditors before civil unrest breaks out and ATMs run out of cash, hedge fund Balyasny Asset Management said.

Fund managers are questioning how the International Monetary Fund and Europe’s leaders can seal a deal with Athens following the “no” vote in a Greek referendum on Sunday. Sixty-one percent of voters rejected austerity, increasing the likelihood of an exit from the euro area.

EL-ERIAN: If the Greek ‘no’ vote wins, prepare for a global stock market sell-off

They’re still counting the votes, but so far the “No” vote has the lead. In other words, “No” the Greek people do not want to accept strict fiscal austerity measures in exchange for desperately needed bailout money.

…

In a post on Facebook, Allianz’s Mohamed El-Erian offered a brief preview of things to come should the “No” vote win.

“IF this historic “no” win is confirmed, look initially for a general selloff in global equities, along with price pressures on the bonds issued by Greece, other peripheral Eurozone economies and emerging markets,” he wrote.

EU warns of Armageddon if Greek voters reject terms

“Without new money, salaries won’t be paid, the health system will stop functioning, the power network and public transport will break down,” warns President of European Parliament

Greece risks a collapse of the medical system, power black-outs, and an import blockade, if the Greek people reject creditor demands in a make-or-break referendum tomorrow, the EU’s highest elected official has warned.

Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said the EU authorities may have to prepare emergency loans to keep basic public services functioning and to prevent the debt-stricken country spinning out of control next week.

“Without new money, salaries won’t be paid, the health system will stop functioning, the power network and public transport will break down, and they won’t be able to import vital goods because nobody can pay,” he said.